Schools of the Future
Schools of the future will be able to provide personalized learning to many pupils at once. Data analytics of students scoring and info will allow teachers to multitask while adding material to focus on areas they find troubling. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) will reign because entrepreneurial skills and imaginative thinking pair well with technical skills, letting students imagine the future.
What will be included?
Sony has developed a program for young students in elementary schools to start STEM learning early, except it also includes art. STEAM has picked up momentum because our workforce must be entrepreneurs and innovators solving complex problems that rigid thinking cannot help with. We need students thinking outside the textbook developing new formulas and technologies.
Sony’s program is called the KOOV education kit allowing young learners to experiment, with coding, design, and robotics. This is important because we need our young students to be prepared for the increasing complexity of tomorrow’s technology. This program includes more than 50 hours of instruction with different configurations for robotics as students learn. It’s designed for students ages 8 and above. It also includes lessons plans for teachers along with classroom software.
Augmented learning is another field of education that is quickly expanding. People are able to acquire skills just in time due to the learning environment adapting to the learner. This allows flexibility and gains attention of the user through audio, pop ups on screen, and highlighting important info.
Some people argue that augmented learning isn’t actual learning. People compare this to rote memorization and not fully understanding a topic. However when calculators first came out people criticize them because students no longer had to use the long hand form in many curriculum's.
However I would argue since knowledge is readily available including slower forms of, for example multiplication isn’t necessary. They should know how it’s done but no need to memorize times tables. It hinders us from reaching further discovery.
McKenzie, H. (2012, December 6). STEM Employment Changes Since 2000 [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://pando.com/2012/12/06/10-graphs-that-show-how-high-tech-jobs-are-transforming-the-us-economy/
